Listen to their interviews at the bottom of the page or read their answers transcribed below.
Introductions:
Toby Paone: Sure. I have a background in state and local government, both as a student, graduate student, and as my undergraduate work. And then I spent most of my career doing something related to state and local government. One of the things that— one of the reasons I am running is the incumbent, Rita Vargas, asked me to run. She is retiring from the post after 24 years and she contacted me and asked me to run for the position. So I said, yes. I've been involved in the city of Davenport on the Civil Service Commission and the Design Review Board. I am a member of the board of directors for the Mississippi Bend AEA here in the Quad Cities. I've held public office before. I was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives back in the early 2000s, and I also served on the Rice Lake, Wisconsin City Council a few years ago when I lived up there. And I also served as a special assistant to the mayor of the city of St. Louis about 30 years ago. So I have a lot of experience and training and really a devotion to serving the public, especially at the state and local level.
Mike Wulf: Yeah, sure, Brady. I'm a lifelong resident of Scott County, in fact, a 4th generation resident and my primary reason is because I care about this community. It's been my home. My mother still lives here. My wife and I have lived here. We just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. I have a daughter and son-in-law here and a new 10, 11-week-old granddaughter that lives here. So it's really about giving back to this community and caring about this community. And I believe that my background and expertise can serve the Scott County residents very well in the Recorder's Office.
And to kind of help listeners understand the position from your perspective, what duties does the Scott County Recorder conduct on a day-to-day basis?
Paone: The recorder is responsible for birth records, death records, passports, land records, which is arguably the biggest portion of the job, and licensing of non-roadworthy vehicles like boats, trailers, ATVs, UTVs. Something that those types of things that you're not going to be able to drive on the street or take on the highway. The land records issue, loan companies, banks, real estate agents, and real estate companies use the recorder's office for titles and basically, any documents that are required for real property go through the Recorder's Office as a repository for those records, so that when property is sold or transferred, they have to go someplace. And so they go to the Recorder's Office here in Scott County, as in every other county in the state.
Wulf: Right. So the recorder's office, their primary function— in fact, if you go to my website, it's wolf4recorder.com, W-U-L-F-4-recorder.com. I actually have a section that explains what the recorder's office does, because that is— that's the number one question I'm asked. What's the Recorder's Office do? And a couple of things. First off, it's there as the trustee of your county records, real estate records, birth, death, marriage. They really are the custodian of those records, and it's critical that we keep accurate records of our Scott County residents, real estate transactions, all those things. So that's their primary function. They also have a function that allows us to get passports. We do— the Recorder's Office does RV and boat licenses. So there's some other services. But one of the reasons I'm asked that question is because we need to do a better job of explaining to the citizens of Scott County what the Recorder's Office does. Really promoting the services that are available. Making sure that residents know what can be handled at the Recorder's Office. There's a real key. Our property protection is a very free is a free service that can be offered, and not many residents even know about that. There's 75,000 properties in the Quad Cities, and only about 7,500 property owners take advantage of this free fraud alert service that's available in the Auditor's Office. So one of my priorities will be to do a better job promoting the Recorder's Office and the services available to our Scott County residents.
And if elected, what are the main issues and topics you would like to address during your term?
Paone: I think the most important topic— well, a couple of things. First, cybersecurity is really important and preventing fraud of these records, preventing them from being stolen or compromised because of hackers, thieves, people who might be interested in attacking our computer systems and our servers because these hold vital records. And if somebody is able to abscond with them or hack them, that can cause individuals a lot of problems and a lot of headaches. So cybersecurity is really important. The prevention of fraud is of vital importance as well. I think the third issue is maintaining a professional, efficient office, one that is friendly to consumers and customers and taxpayers. For example, we have an open window. We don't take appointments. You can walk right up to the counter and deal with your business without having to call ahead for an appointment. To me, that's really important. Our citizens are busy, and to have that office open during regular hours where a person can walk in and conduct their business without setting an appointment is being user-friendly and, and I think important for the citizens of Scott County.
Wulf: So the Recorder's Office and the Scott County Recorder is really an administrative position. It's not about making political decisions. It's not about politics. It's really about delivering services. And so my focus is really about protecting property rights, making sure we preserve the trust, and then the key deliverable is providing excellence. And what that means is error-free delivery, efficiency, and effective customer service. So those three pillars of excellence are important, and you don't go in as a leader and just upset the apple cart. Really, what the recorder's job will be is to support the staff, provide the staff the tools to improve, to become more efficient. So it's not about going in and micromanaging and saying what we're going to do or what we're going to change. We want to, we want to preserve what works well. We want to give opportunity to staff to provide input and identify opportunities for improvement and then make those corrections. So it's not about what to change or what to improve. It's really about how to improve and how to develop a culture that really fosters innovation, fosters efficiency. And that's really what my background has been for the last 40 years as well.
And why should voters select you over your opponent?
Paone: First of all, I've been endorsed by Rita Vargas, the current recorder, and she sought me out. I didn't seek her out. She knew I had the qualifications and the experiences necessary in order to do the position. I don't know my opponent. I've only read about him in a couple of newspapers. Seems like a nice gentleman, but I think what you'll get with me in the Scott County Recorder's Office is somebody who is dedicated to the position. I am certainly experienced in government, state and local government. I can handle this position and do, and do it well. I have a lot of experience and confidence that I can certainly handle the position.
Wulf: Well, you know, I'll go back to my professional background, Brady. I'm, like I said, born and raised in Scott County, received an engineering degree from Iowa State University. And I've spent 40 years in the world of performance improvement, process improvement, operational excellence. And so my background is well suited for driving improvement and driving excellence. Again, I've referred to those three pillars of error-free delivery, efficient service, and effective customer service. Those three areas, I call it E3 Excellence, and that is what I've done all my career, building teams, driving operational improvement, but driving it not from the top down, but really building teams and facilitating teams that drive improvement from the people that are closest to the work. They're the real subject matter experts. And so we have a great staff at the County Recorder's Office, and I'm very impressed with them. The next step is really how we administer that office and how we continue to drive improvement. All of our county offices are being given some pretty aggressive budget targets to hit. And improving efficiency, lowering your budget, lowering your costs does not mean you have to cut services. It just means you do look for better, more efficient, more productive ways to provide those services. And what I've found in my, my career is most operations that are very efficient also provide very high quality and very high service. It's the discipline to the process of how they improve and how they provide those services. And so the reason I believe voters should look to me is, is because of that 40 years of experience that has really been focused on eliminating waste, And driving excellence in all the organizations that I've worked with and consulted to.
And is there anything else you would like to share with voters ahead of the November midterm elections?
Paone: Cast your ballot. Vote all the way down the ticket. Don't just pick the top offices of U.S. Senate and Congress and governor, but go all the way up and down the ballot and make sure that you cover everything because the offices at the local level are just as important as the offices at the state and federal level. So fill in, fill in the blanks for everything.
Wulf: You know, there is. And one of the things that I'm sensing out there— not even sensing, actually, since that's the wrong, wrong word— when I'm out knocking on doors and talking to voters, they are—they're tired of the negative ads. They're tired of the massive amounts of media, and I'm sensing that some people are just saying, throwing their hands up and saying, "I'm not—I'm not really going to participate." And—and I wish that that weren't the sentiment out there. I'm going to encourage everybody to be out participating and voting. Like I said, in the Recorder's Office, it's not about politics, it's not about partisan politics, it's who can do the best job and deliver the best services. And at our local, county, and state levels, I think it's absolutely critical that we still participate, that we're engaged, that we do a good job selecting the people that'll be running those offices, controlling those budgets, and providing those services so that residents get the kind of service they deserve, the kind of service they're paying for with their tax dollars. So I just want to encourage everybody that when they may be frustrated a little bit with the election season and the way elections are run these days, don't let them discourage you from getting out to the polls and getting out to vote. Whether they vote early, whether they vote absentee, whether they vote the day of in person, you really need to exercise that right. It's just too critical to stay at home.
Early voting is underway in Iowa. Election Day is November 3. Links to the Auditor's website for more election information: Scott.
